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Extra.ie
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
FILM REVIEW OF THE WEEK: Lollipop
Daisy-May Hudson's Lollipop is a fierce and necessary fiction feature burning with the truth of lived experience. In this impassioned story of one mother's post-prison struggle to regain her children, Hudson lays bare the punitive systems that punish poverty, pathologise emotion, and criminalise the survival strategies of women who are already navigating impossible odds. Drawing on her own experiences of homelessness in Half Way (2015), Hudson's debut fiction film sits squarely in the tradition of Loach and Arnold, but with a vital, distinctly feminist eye that frames this story as not just one of injustice, but of structural betrayal – particularly of working-class, single mothers. Molly, brought to life in a raw and incandescent performance by Posy Sterling, is a young woman released from prison into a world that offers neither welcome nor restitution. Her crime remains unspecified – a deliberate choice, perhaps, to underline how often women are criminalised for acts of desperation tied to poverty, domestic violence, or mental health crises. The statistics support this: most women in prison are there for non-violent offences linked to poverty or attempts to escape untenable domestic situations. Lollipop doesn't sensationalise this reality; it refuses to moralise. Instead, it insists on the viewer's empathy by making clear how deeply the deck is stacked against someone like Molly. From the moment Molly leaves prison, she is not met with rehabilitation, but with a series of Kafkaesque obstacles. Her mother, played with devastating opacity by TerriAnn Cousins, has turned her children over to social services. Molly is told she cannot regain custody without stable housing, but is refused family housing because she doesn't have custody. This isn't just a catch-22 – it's a trap, one designed to collapse hope. Through quietly devastating sequences, the film exposes the impossible circular logic of social systems that claim to protect children while punishing their mothers for being poor, angry, or alone. And anger, in Lollipop, is as dangerous as poverty. Molly's frustrated outbursts are interpreted as instability, her heartbreak as volatility. The film is particularly astute in showing how emotions, especially in women, are surveilled and weaponised. Her grief is reframed as a mental health risk. Her love for her children, expressed with urgency and fear, is pathologised. This is a system that rewards passivity, even as it pushes women to the brink. One particularly brutal scene sees Molly walk into what she believes will be a reunion with her children, only to face a tribunal of care professionals – each one a woman, each one clearly burdened by the very roles they are forced to play. Hudson doesn't scapegoat these workers, nor does she let them off the hook. Instead, she presents them as caught within the same system, one that uses women to police and punish other women. It is no accident that the men in this story are largely absent or invisible – Molly's exes, the fathers of her children, have vanished from her life, leaving her to bear the full weight of social and emotional responsibility. This is a reality faced by countless single mothers, many of whom are left not only unsupported but actively punished for attempting to cope alone. Lollipop never forgets this imbalance, instead making it central to its critique. Women are expected to pick up every piece, and when they fail to do so quietly, they are deemed unfit. In its themes and emotional force, Lollipop echoes recent Irish films such as Paddy Breathnach's Rosie and Phyllida Lloyd's Herself. Like Lollipop, Rosie follows a mother caught in a brutal housing crisis, moving from car to hotel with her children while trying to hold her family together in the face of mounting bureaucracy and public indifference. And Herself tells the story of a woman escaping domestic violence who tries to build her own home, both physically and metaphorically, only to encounter institutional obstruction at every turn. In all three films, the state presents itself as neutral or benevolent, while quietly maintaining a web of impossibilities designed to humiliate, delay and ultimately erase women who dare to act independently. What Lollipop adds to this cinematic lineage is the particular lens of post-carceral motherhood and the way social control seeps into maternal identity and emotional expression itself. Lollipop is not an entirely miserable tale, and Hudson's vision is filled with tenderness. The friendship between Molly and Amina (Idil Ahmed) is a lifeline for Molly, the audience, and the film's emotional core. Their bond is forged in shared experience and mutual care, from moments of breakdown to bursts of joy. A scene in which Amina responds to Molly's anger with compassion, only for that anger to immediately melt to heart-wrenching grief, is one of the most powerful in the film, showing how empathy, compassion and understanding can unlock anyone's core and model the need for not just kindness, but genuine support. Sterling's performance carries the film with a magnetic, wounded energy. Molly is not a symbol or a victim – she is a person. She is flawed, impulsive, loving, angry. Sterling gives her a rich emotional interior, and Hudson's writing allows those emotions to live on screen without tidy resolution. Even in moments of deep chaos, the film resists melodrama, trusting instead in the authenticity of lived emotion. That authenticity is supported by a mostly female cast and creative team, who imbue the story with a deep understanding of the kinds of violence that don't always leave bruises, but leave scars all the same. The fact that every adult character—council worker, shopkeeper, probation officer—is played by a woman is deeply telling. Lollipop is about what happens to women when the state fails them, and about how that failure is masked by bureaucracy, protocol and procedure. Hudson's film makes clear that this isn't about bad apples or rogue decisions, but a systemic design that makes martyrs of single mothers and invisibilises the men who let them fall. Lollipop is a powerful, furious, and tender-hearted film. It demands not only that we look at the structures which brutalise women, but that we recognise the quiet heroism of those who survive within them. Hudson doesn't just tell a story – she offers testimony. And it is impossible to walk away from this film unmoved.
ITV News
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ITV News
Lollipop: A 'timely' film about the realities of the social care system
A decade ago Daisy-May Hudson picked up her camera and started documenting her family's life. She, her mother and her 13-year-old sister had just lost their home. Priced out of the rental market, they were living in hostels and halfway houses while they fought layers of bureaucracy to try and get rehoused. The resulting documentary, Half Way, announced the arrival of a major new filmmaking talent as well as showing the frustrations, tears and helplessness of people in her family's position. Awarded the BAFTA Breakthrough accolade, she has now made her first feature film Lollipop, which deals with a mother fighting to regain custody of her children after they are taken into care while she is in prison. The feelings of powerlessness she encountered amongst single mothers during screenings of Half Way, helped inform Hudson's decision to make a feature film, using people who had real life experience of the issues. From women she met during the making of Holloway, her documentary about former inmates of Holloway women's prison, to a script supervisor who herself lost her son into the care system just days after he was born, Lollipop is an emotional and powerful study of the realities of mothers separated from their children, while offering no judgement of the parties involved. For Hudson and script supervisor Emilia Rose Porter, Lollipop presents the system as it is, and asks if this is what the viewer thinks it should be be. Porter uses her experience to help those working in the social care industries, sharing the story of how a difficult private life and mental health issues meant she had to fight to get her son back and turn her life around. She succeeded, and is grateful to Hudson for giving people like her visibility, she says. With increasing awareness of the negative impact on children caused by maternal imprisonment, Lollipop is timely. Now the film is about to get a lot more visibility. Next week it is being released in UK cinemas.
Miami Herald
21-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Beloved brewery, beer brand asks for help to avoid bankruptcy
We live in a time where people willingly asks their friends and family for financial help through things like Go Fund Me pages. Those pages have been used to raise funds for noble causes like paying for healthcare expenses or for housing after an unexpected disaster. They have also been used for less nobly pursuits like paying for travel or funding someone's platic surgery. Related: Home Depot local rival closing permanently after 120 years People now have the technology to put their hands out and ask for money and their friends and family can decide what's worthy of being funded. Businesses don't generally ask for money in the same way, but it's not unheard of. Many non-profit (on not profitable) local news operations take donations. In many ways, that works like when you go to a museum and there's a suggested fee. You don't have to pay, but it's the right thing to do. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Now, one popular regional brewery has decided to ask its customers for help. That's not an easy choice, but its one that might be the brand's only chance at survival. There's no guarantee that it will work, but many people would be willing to kick in a little to help their favorite brands survive. "Long Ireland Beer Company was started by Dan Burke and Greg Martin. They are two guys that wanted to quit their day jobs and make beer for a living, so that's exactly what they did," the company shares on its website. "We've been making beer since March 1, 2009." In addition to selling beer to go and wholesaling it to local stores and restaurants, the company also has a tap room. "Come visit the brewery tap room. We are open 7 days a week for tasting flights, pints and beer to-go. Our beer garden is always open and also available to rent for private parties and events. Did we mention that we're dog friendly," it added. Now, Long Island Beer Company has made a plea to its customers through its Facebook page. "We're not crying into our beers… but we're definitely staring into them a little longer these days," the company shared. "After 16 years of brewing beer on Long Island, the cost of everything has gone up, from hops & grain, to aluminum cans and cups! Sales are down everywhere, expenses are up, and this economy is rougher than the day after Half Way hangover." Retail closings: Popular retail chain to close unprofitable store locationsBankrupt retail chain unloads store leases, key assetPopular discount retailer files bankruptcy, closes all stores The owners were honest and blunt about where the company stands. "We are struggling to survive like so many businesses are and our future isn't guaranteed. Every day we see local breweries, restaurants and local businesses we love closing their doors and we don't want that to be our fate too," it added. Dozens of local breweries have closed this year and it's possible a few more would have survived if they simply asked their biggest supporters for help. That's exactly what Long Beer Company had decided to do. "We want nothing more than to keep making beer for you and throwing fun events that we've all come to love. But we can't do it alone. So here's how you can help keep the taps flowing here at Long Ireland," it shared on Facebook. Stop in with friends and knock back a few pints. We're open 7 days a week!Stock up on cans, or grab a keg and be the hero of your next for us at your local beer store or distributor. We are now self distributed!Put us on tap if you own a bar or restaurant (we pair well with profits & local beer is always a good look!)Host your club or group in our tasting room - our brew house or beer garden make a unique location for your outing! "The more you sip, the more we survive. Let's keep this brewery alive one beer at a time. We hope to see all of you soon. Long live Long Ireland," it closed. Related: Another beloved furniture retailer closing, no bankruptcy Long Island Beer Company's Facebook page was packed with comments supporting the brand. "Thanks for this post we love you guys and your beers have been a staple," posted Lynndel Cassen. Hundreds of people pledged to visit. "Will definitely swing by this weekend to get some beer for this holiday weekend!" Brendan Noble wrote. The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
